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old time religion

I’ve put off talking about the Bell Witch because honestly I’m scared of her. I grew up with the story in Hermitage, TN and I’m an Adams from where she was from so I was told not to tell it. But here I go.

My mom bought me a Bell Witch book for Christmas this week simply called The Bell Witch. It’s edited Brent Monahan but is the memoirs of Richard Powell – who married Betsy Bell, the most tormented of all the Bell Children.

I never read prologues because shit they’re mostly boring but I wish I had because I nearly crapped my pants at the beginning of chapter 1. It begins:

“You first heard about the “Bell Witch” when you were 7.”

I WAS 7 WHEN I FIRST HEARD ABOUT THE BELL WITCH. For ten seconds I literally thought the book was talking to me. I read it over and over again until I realized Richard Powell was talking to his daughter. It goes on to describe the first-hand account he lays out about the Bell Witch, Kate Batts, “in the event of his death.”

Kate Batts, Monahan describes as a unique American poltergeist – a weirder Beetleguise because she could hurt people. I guess all the other poltergeists are just flashes of light and opening of cabinets but Kate Batts was something else entirely. No, she could rip the covers of the Bell boys’ beds while simultaneously pull the fire out of Betsy Bell’s hair. And it’s not just the Bell’s that seent it.

They enlisted the help of their neighbors once the hauntings got so bad. That’a when slick Willy, Richard Powell, gets involved – who by the way is a teacher in the town. In the first six pages he describes how, “In keeping with the nature of the revival, she wore a simple linsey-woolsey dress without ribbons or lace, and yet she was exquisite to look upon…She was just shy of thirteen…”

So – Richard, a man of the world from Wisconsin or some shit already has an agenda because he later married Betsy Bell. The 13 year old. I’m no spring chicken and I get that older men married MUCH younger girls back then and even now in most parts of the world. My grandpa was away in WWII and was dating my grandma probably before she had her first period so whatever. BUT this is where the story gets good.

Kate Batts was definitely a weirdo. By the time and even by today’s standards. But was she a witch? Was she the first american comedian? Was she just a freak?

I dunno. But here’s the deal. She had a lot of “negroes” that she “took care of” and were in her retinue. She was always begging wool and needles from townsfolk and people already started talking like she was a witch because they thought they were makin voodoo dolls and doing witchcraft. Kate was married at the time, but her husband fell ill so she was essentially a woman of the world – and we all know that means trouble. She went to church, but always late and one time sat on some dudes head who was really feeling that ol’ time religion and it really harshed his “jerking exercise.”

So, I do wonder, did the town cry witchcraft because she was different? Because her slaves were her tribe and she was just a wild lady? I mean, seriously – did her energy REALLY rip the covers off the Bell kids and pull their hair or was she so despised the family made it all up? Hatfields and McCoys aint got shit on this neighbor feud.

Did she hate John Bell because because she was a wackadoo christian (John Bell was thrown out of the church btw). Did the joke go too far? Or did she know something that we don’t know? I think there’s something in Kate Batts that hated the Bell men but why? Did she think she was pious? Or was she harmed by them?

Do women just act out for no reason? Let’s be real – there was no poltergeist. So what the hell was going on that it still remains in Tennessean’s collective memories?

There might be an interesting parallel with a recent Nashville Ballet Performance’s interpretation of Lizzie Borden. In Nashville treasure, Paul Vasterling’s interpretation, Lizzie was being raped by her father and her mother stands by. She is justified in an almost feminist way when she removes her clothes and murders her family brutally with an ax., shown beautifully thought ballet and lights of course.

Was she a feminist or completely insane? I just wish I had the answers. What do y’all think?